August 12
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was concluded between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It went into effect in January 1994. – 1992.
What was to become a 232-day strike by Major League Baseball players over owners’ demands for team salary caps begins; ultimately 938 games were canceled. It ended the 1994 season. – 1994.
August 13
After a three-month siege, Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés capture Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. Cortés’ men leveled the city. – 1521.
In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government representatives of East Germany begin building the Berlin Wall to divide East Berlin and West Berlin. – 1961.
August 14
President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, to provide for the first time, guaranteed income for retirees and to create a system of unemployment benefits. – 1935.
A major outage knocks out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Fifty-million people were affected. Despite concerns, there were very few reports of looting or other blackout-inspired crime. In New York City, the police department, out in full force, recorded about 100 fewer arrests than average. In some places, citizens even took it upon themselves to help direct traffic in the absence of working traffic lights. In New York City, the estimated cost of the blackout was more than $500 million. – 2003.
August 15
The American-built waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is inaugurated with the passage of the U.S. vessel Ancon, a cargo and passenger ship. – 1914.
Emperor Hirohito broadcasts the news of Japan’s surrender to the Japanese people. In Japan’s Shinto religious tradition, the emperor was divine; his voice was the voice of a god. Hirohito said, “(Japan’s enemy) has begun to employ a most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable.” – 1945.
The Woodstock Music Festival opens on a patch of farmland in White Lake, a hamlet in the upstate New York town of Bethel, which was host to more than of half a million festival-goers. – 1969.
U.S. president Richard M. Nixon announces a 90-day freeze on wages, prices, and rents in an attempt to combat inflation. – 1971.
August 16
While salmon-fishing near the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory, George Carmack reportedly spots nuggets of gold in a creek bed. His lucky discovery sparks the last great gold rush in the American West. News of the gold strike spread fast and over the next two years, as many as 50,000 would-be miners arrived in the region. – 1896.
Congress passes the National Apprenticeship Act to establish a National advisory committee to research and draft regulations for establishing minimum standards for apprenticeship programs. It was later amended to permit the Labor Department to issue regulations to protect the health, safety, and general welfare of apprentices, and to encourage the use of contracts in their hiring and employment. – 1937.
August 17
Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman is struck in the temple by a ball pitched by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees. He dies 12 hours later. It was the first and only death as the result of a pitched ball in Major League Baseball history. – 1920.
A plane crash at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan kills 156 persons. A four-year-old girl was the sole survivor of the accident, which was caused by pilot error. – 1987.
U.S. president Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting president to testify before the Office of Independent Council as the subject of a grand-jury investigation. – 1998.
An earthquake in northwestern Turkey kills more than 17,000 individuals and leaves more than 250,000 homeless. The immense disaster exposed serious problems with government and building contractors in Turkey. – 1999.
August 18
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to guarantee women the right to vote, is ratified by Tennessee, for a two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. – 1920.
The Yangtze River in China peaks during a horrible flood that kills 3.7 million individuals directly and indirectly over the next several months. Rice fields that dominated the landscape are destroyed and many perished from starvation and disease. It was perhaps the worst natural disaster of the 20th Century. – 1931.